The sentence doesn't have a comma, so you can't put one anywhere else. Some people would put one after spending and rich.Are deficit spending and increased taxes on the rich tools that should be used in conjunction?
Where else am I supposed to put a comma?
My reading of the sentence is that there must not be a comma after tools,
I've edited the above. Without commas, the reader might read "rich tools" as tools modified by the adjective rich. Setting off "and increased taxes on the rich" with commas would prevent that.The sentence doesn't have a comma, so you can't put one anywhere else. Some people would put one after spending and rich.
matacar, you don't appear to have found the Thank button yet. It's in the bottom left-hand corner of every post except your own. Click that instead of writing thank-you posts.Thank you for your help. I really appreciate it.
The sentence doesn't have a comma, so you can't put one anywhere else. Some people would put one after spending and rich.
The OP's question (in the title) asks if there should be a comma before "tools" not after.
I might reorder the sentence, mainly because, try as I might, I can't stop seeing "rich tools" as an adjective followed by a noun.
The speaker saying this sentence made a slight pause before tools.
It's the same in American English. Or rather, it can be. It's also a common word for "useful implement".For info, "tool" is a slightly derogatory word in BrE, meaning something akin to "idiot".
Emsr2d2 and I both read it that way. I think the commas are okay as a way to guide the reader to the correct understanding.I don't think you should be concerned about the possibility of people parsing rich tools as an adjective modifying a noun.
We didn't understand it as an insult after reading it carefully. It looked derogatory at first glance, though. Adding the commas, which would normally be incorrect for this sort of sentence, makes that reading impossible.Tools, in this case, is not connected with rich. I do believe I need a comma before "and" and before "tools". It's not supposed to be an insult, sorry for not being precise.
There's a simple word you can use if the answer is "each other".You need to say what something is used in conjunction with.